


The Irony of Fortune

by Bluevalleymist



Category: Pirates of the Caribbean (Movies)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-26
Updated: 2017-07-15
Packaged: 2018-11-19 02:58:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,370
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11304315
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bluevalleymist/pseuds/Bluevalleymist
Summary: Fortune always felt like her name was a curse, and when her world comes crashing down on her in a single night, she sees no reason to think otherwise. That is until she meets a Spanish captain and finds out just how fortunate she can be. But how long will good fortunes last? (Rated M for safety). Also posted on fanfiction.net under WishingAwayReality





	1. Chapter 1

A/N: Hey all! Thank you in advance for taking the time to read this. I haven’t written a fanfiction in awhile as I don’t often have time. I’m not sure how much I’ll be able to update but I totally loved Capitan Salazar in the movie so I’m hoping to work on it as much as possible. Hope you enjoy.

Chapter One

It was the day of her sister’s wedding. The gulls were calling, the sea was harmonizing, and the breeze felt refreshing. That was about all Fortune remembered of the event, outside of the screaming and the loud bangs of cannons from a ship. Then it all just went black.

She awoke to a sharp throbbing in the back of her head. Her cream colored dress covered her body in tatters and now carried red stains. The ground beneath her felt unstable, as if it rocked back and forth on a gentle current. Her surroundings, cast over by a dim light, and the sensations that ran through her body didn’t connect. She could barely grasp at a thought, and when she did, she couldn’t understand it.

It did occur to her, however that she was laying down with her back against something hard beneath her. She pushed herself up, her arms shaking as she did so. Her eyes squeezed shut as the blood seemed to rush away from her head. She took a moment to regain herself and the sharp throbbing returned.

Moving onto her knees, she eventually got herself onto her feet. The ground shifted beneath her. A hand went to her head as she stumbled back a few steps and then forward again.

A ship.

The realization hit her just as she lost her balance entirely and toppled onto the floor. She narrowly kept her head from hitting the floor but cringed as her body cried out in pain. Her ankle twisted in the mess and she decided to just lie there in hopes of figuring something out. She rested her head on her arm, feeling something sticky in her hair, but decided to ignore it for now. Her main concern shifted to filling in the gaps of what happened.

When she tried, she could see her sister, Charity, standing next to her betrothed. Charity’s smile parted her lips and Fortune could see the true happiness in her sister’s eyes. And then a ship appeared on the horizon. Everyone ignored it at first, believing it to be a British naval ship, but Fortune could remember a few murmurs amongst some of the men in regards to it not being a man-of-war or other naval type vessel in decoration. It wasn’t until it was too late that the ceremonies broke.

Cannon fire from the unknown vessel brought an end to the joyous occasion, a curse on what was supposed to be one of the happiest moments in her sister’s life. From there, Fortune could only remember the chaos. Bodies pushing against each other, men trying to escort their wives and daughters from the area, single men trying to help create some semblance of order. She pushed her way through the crowd like a salmon trying to swim upriver in an attempt to reconnect with her sister.

That was where the memory came to an abrupt end. A vague recollection of pain flooded her memory but she wasn’t sure if that was mingling with her current reality or truly something that happened. Another remote feeling told her that other pieces fit together after the blackout, but she couldn’t recall them no matter how long she stared at the damp floor in front of her.

But she was on a ship, and she knew it was a pirate attack, which could only lead her to believe she was in trouble. It took all she had to not try and sigh it away. She swore her birth name was more of a curse than a blessing. Her parents gave it to her, as she was an unexpected but very welcome child. However, he life had been anything but fortunate growing up. She seemed to be shrouded in bad luck and misfortune. Or maybe that was the joke. She was, after all, Miss Fortune Hunt. 

Pushing aside all thoughts on her current predicament, she tried to shift her attention to the current state of her being. Besides in trouble, possible danger, and mixed with another bout of bad luck, she knew her body was in its own state of disarray. She pushed herself up to a sitting position again.

First, she took a hand to her head and cautiously prodded her fingers around her hair. Pain ripped through her head as her fingers met the damp wound. She cringed and let out a cry of intermingled surprise and pain. She swallowed hard and continued her search for head wounds, but found no more. 

The rest of her body presented only scrapes and bruises, aside from her right leg, which sported a long and bleeding cut on the thigh, and her torso, which ached almost painfully. She couldn’t decide if the ache would be worse had her head not been pounding. There was also the matter of the twisted ankle from her loss of balance and fall to the floor.

She froze at the sound of solid steps along the wooden floor. Her chest tightened and she found herself holding her breath. “Ah, so yer awake now,” she heard a voice rasp out. She looked up to find green eyes staring back at her. A scar ran across the left one. “Take it ye’ve figured out where ye are by now,” he added. She nodded slightly.

“A pirate ship,” she said. Her voice was low and the lack of volume startled her. She never expected to be in this type of situation, but she did always dream of what she would do if she ever found herself in one. Those daydreams differed greatly from what she was finding reality to be, and it only made her that much more uncomfortable.

The man in front of her chuckled, his lips parting to reveal yellowed teeth in the flickering light of a swinging lamp. Shadows danced across his face from the fluctuating light and his facial hair, making him appear all the more sinister to Fortune. “Yer a bright girl,” he responded.

“What do you intend to do with me?” she asked, focusing on adding volume to her voice. 

“We’ll do as we see fit, deary.” A shiver ran up her spine. “And ye’ll not fight us on it.”

“And if I do?”

He chuckled again. “Ye’ll not like the consequences.” Her mind raced to all sorts of tales she’d heard from her parents and the sailors that her brother-in-law associated with. She looked to her lap, her hands tightened around the tattered cloth of her dress. 

“Am I the only one you took?” she mustered. The edges of her eyes stung with the threat of tears. All she wanted was to go back to her sister’s wedding and go home happy and exhausted from dancing and socializing.

“There were a few others,” he stated. His words slowed down. A silence hung between them for a moment. The ship creaked as it continued to rock as if urging him to continue. Fortune swallowed hard and squeezed her eyes shut, bracing for an answer to a question she barely had the courage to ask.

“A woman in a white dress and a man with an officer’s uniform?” 

“Ahh.” The single sound mixed with a sinister chuckle. The man took a step closer, nearly leaning against the bars to Fortune’s new cage. “They were here. I killed the man meself when he attacked me crew. The woman did herself in when she started screamin’ about it.” Fortune bit her lower lip, feeling a dampness form around her closed eyes. “If yer interested, the others didn’t fair much better.” A grin spread across his thin lips, pushing them apart yet again. “Yer the only one who didn’t put up a fight.”

She was alone, stuck in a pirate ship to meet a fate she could only imagine, and she assumed that was only if her injured body didn’t give out first. The wound on her head begged to be tended to and the damp conditions in her cage weren’t going to make things better. Medicine may not have been one of her lessons growing up, but she had heard enough from her brother-in-law to know a handful of things.

“Since yer being so good. I’ll let ye rest for the night.” They were the man’s final words before she could hear the retreating of his footsteps. She waited until only the creak of wood and faint sound of waves could be heard before letting out her sob. Her arms wrapped around her chest and she curled in on herself, giving into the rush of emotions that swam through her body.


	2. Chapter Two

Chapter Two

 

Several days passed in agony, though the exact amount escaped Fortune. Her health declined faster than she expected, so the number of rising and setting suns blurred in her mind until she could no longer even acknowledge the time of day. She only knew that her torso ached worse than when she first found out about her situation and the wound on her leg turned black with a deep red around it. A thin red line trailed downward, toward her foot. The whole area around the wound radiated heat.

Her head felt constantly clouded, though she didn’t feel the same throbbing pain she had before. At first, she’d been almost thankful for her confusion and her inability to be able to process most things, because it blinded her to the lack of food and water and the things the men did to her. But with each time she woke up, she realized that things couldn’t continue on as they had been. Something was going to give, and in her most conscious moments, she knew it was going to be her body.

She still did her best to remain as vigilant as possible, but it was a losing battle. That same battle seemed to create a manifestation in the world around her. The sun rose to the highest point in the sky. One of the men had dragged her to the upper deck, where she sat against the stairs with her knees pulled up to her chest and her head buried between them. There was some reason the man dragged her away from her damp cell, but she couldn’t remember it even when she tried.

The passage of time blurred in her mind, as it seemed to always do in her current state. The sudden cries of the men around her didn’t phase her until she heard the scurrying of feet. She lifted her head and watched as men passed her in a frenzy. From somewhere above, the call to prepare for battle came out. The words passed through her mind as if they were a part of the ambience of the sea.

The sight of another ship caught her attention and drew her to pull herself up, with heavy usage of anything around her that she could grip. She stumbled toward the railing, grabbing onto it just before her legs gave out, barely managing to keep herself upright. The ship that sailed toward them donned white sails; one of them housed what Fortune felt was the image of a bird. At the front, the carving of what she called a crusader stood out, but the recognitions fled from her mind as if useless.

It began to turn on the waves, exposing her port side. Noise carried along the ship as commands were belted out and men frantically moved about. The words “Silent Mary” stuck out to Fortune for a brief moment before she sank down to her knees and closed her eyes. She welcomed the ship. It would bring about an end to the ghastly days she endured on whatever her current ship was called. She shifted so her back was against the railing and listened as the thunderous cries of cannons soon overtook the otherwise calm air.

How she came to end up in the water, she didn’t know. Whether the ship had broken just right that she slid off the deck and plunged into it or whether something had launched from the deck, she couldn’t say and didn’t truly care. The icy water that engulfed her body brought her to her senses, the very senses she had been lacking since about the second or third night upon the cursed pirate vessel.

Her lungs burned as she inhaled water. The depth at which she’d sunk wasn’t too great as she surfaced not long after, gasping for air and coughing up whatever water her lungs could muster. She grabbed onto a floating piece of wood, her body still too exhausted to hold out for very long in the water. A body floated near her, a startled expression on the face and blood leaking out of large portion of his side where his body had been ripped through. She attempted to push it away but found the movement tipped the wood which she clung to. Her current situation depended on the unreliable thing so she allowed herself a brief moment to flail in the water. The wood corrected itself and she grabbed hold of it again.

The cannons of the enemy ship let out a few last roars before most of the pirate ship floated in broken pieces along the surface of the water, while any largely intact ones fell toward the bottom. Men floundered in the water around her, crying out for help to the very men that had just put them in harm’s way. She couldn’t help her small giggle. “To hell with us all,” she muttered. It occurred to her, in that brief moment, that she may have a second chance and should be crying out like the very cowards who held her captive.

But her leg stung and radiated sharp bursts of pain up her side and down to the sole of her foot. The new lightness her body felt was only from the waves and once she was out of it, she knew the same heaviness and stiffness she’d had in her limbs would return tenfold. Whatever ailed her leg would now have the help of the salty water and her mind would cloud over when not confronted with bone chilling water.

A second chance, she wagered, would be a fleeting moment of hope.

“A woman! Capitan, there’s a woman in the water!” the cry came from above, on the victorious ship. Fortune closed her eyes and rested her chin on the floating board. She ignored the water as it threatened to slip between her lips. The remnants of the first night flooded through her mind; her torn dress, the bloodstains, her matted hair. She could easily be mistaken for one of the pirates.

The man’s observation was met with a cry to fire and she heard the guns go off. The pirates cried out in agony and fear as they tried to scatter in an attempt to save their own lives. Many of them didn’t get far, but some still managed to survive. No new pain ripped through Fortune and she could still feel herself bobbing up and down, hear the groans of dying men around her. It prompted her to open her eyes.

An occasional shot from a gun went off.

A small boat, filled with men in uniforms, made its way through the debris and toward her. The men would take a moment to fire at any pirate they saw still moving before getting close enough to her. She looked up as a man held out his hand. Her eyes ran over it for a moment before she reached up. The wood shifted and she sank down into the water, but a firm grip wrapped around her fingers and she was pulled from the water’s clutches. Some of the men shifted, allowing room for her to sit.

She caught sight of a few crewmembers from the pirate ship swimming away before she fell sideways. The man next to her barely managed to hold her up and exchange a glance to the one giving orders as they returned to the Silent Mary. They helped her aboard, the stern captain watching from the wheel. His quartermaster began calling out orders. A few of the men helped her below decks.

The next few moments came in and out to Fortune. One moment someone was asking for her name, the next someone asked if she was a pirate, the next was someone asking if she would make it, and then her vision filled with darkness. The bustle around the room nearly faded away as well once a proud looking man in a black and white uniform stepped in. Any extra men made their way out and toward the upper deck. He looked down at the woman on the bed and then to the surgeon now in charge of her care.

“She’s in rough shape, sir,” he stated. The surgeon looked to the blackened wound on Fortune’s leg. Even the least medically inclined could see it was serious, and the dark red circle around it only made the surgeon fear more for the woman.

“You’ll tell me when she’s awake,” the man in the black and white uniform said. The surgeon looked up at him and nodded.

“Of course, captain,” the man responded. The captain lingered in the doorway. His eyes ran over the woman on the bed, her dress tattered but enough to still keep her mostly decent. He tossed around the idea of her being a pirate several times in his mind before coming to the conclusion that she wasn’t. Something about her seemed just too fragile to be linked into that sort of life.

But the question of what she was doing on the ship remained all the same. He toyed with those thoughts as he turned from the doorway and headed back up to the wheel. Sooner or later, he would find out, and he could certainly be a patient man if he tried. For the time being, he could easily distract himself by hunting more pirates.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

A cry of pain sounded through the night. Fortune’s leg burned from the inside, sending sharp stabs of pain up her side. Her head tipped back, the sore spot pressing against the cot as her torso pushed upward. One man stood at her feet, pushing her ankles into the firm bedding, another leaning over her body so as to keep her wrists pressed down. The surgeon himself sat by her legs, taking a sharp knife and scraping at the deadened, black skin along her cut.

Tears dripped down from the corners of Fortune’s eyes. Even if she wanted to hold them back, her body forced them to come in reaction to the pain. Just moments before, she’d been asleep. She’d been granted no warning prior to the torturous pain that came from what the surgeon deemed necessary. 

A fourth man stood on the opposite side of the room. The surgeon had already warned him about the commotion that would follow his decision and, naturally, got the man’s permission. They had allowed Fortune to sleep through the day and half of the night before the surgeon realized how dangerous her condition was. If she was to have any hope at surviving, he needed to act quickly. 

Fortune let out a few sobs once the scraping stopped. The surgeon dismissed the two men holding her down and went about wrapping the wound. “She’ll be awake now, for awhile at least, Capitán,” he stated. The man, still donning black and white, moved forward some. 

“What is your name?” the captain asked. He didn’t see the need for pleasantries and asking how she felt. Anyone who could see her in her current state—tear stained eyes, pale skin, and a bandaged leg—would know the answer to that question. Cutting to the chase often had its benefits too; people in civilized society didn’t often expect it. Pleasantries and small talk were all too common in the social game.

A brief silence followed before Fortune realized she was being spoken to. Her mouth opened first, but nothing came for a moment. “F-Fortune,” she stuttered, her throat dry and her voice hoarse. It seemed almost strange to her that being so close to water made someone’s body so dry. The captain smirked slightly, the irony unable to escape him.

“What were you doing aboard a pirate ship?” He practically spat the word ‘pirate’. Under normal circumstances, Fortune wouldn’t have missed the disdain he expressed, but the adrenaline of her recent ordeal wasn’t enough to clear her foggy mind. 

“Against my will…” she answered, leading to a brief coughing fit. “I was… kidnapped?” She could barely recall if that was the word she was looking for. Something about it didn’t seem to quite fit her situation. Then it dawned on her; these men were taking care of her wounds, they were giving her safe housing on their ship, and cared enough to get her story. “Where am I?” she asked.

“The Silent Mary,” he answered. “I am Armando Salazar, Capitán of this vessel.”

“You saved my life… thank you…” Fortune replied.

“Not yet,” the surgeon interjected. He pushed himself up from his knees and moved away from the bed some, wiping his hands on a cloth. “Your wounds aren’t minor, señora.” He paused. Turning to face her again, his eyes met hers. “It’s honestly a surprise you lasted with these wounds at all.”

Fortune didn’t quite know how to respond to the sentiment. She didn’t expect to survive the pirate ship. Then again, she didn’t really bother with much after finding out her sister and brother-in-law were murdered. “I appreciate it nonetheless,” she answered after a moment’s thought.

Captain Salazar paused a brief moment, about to make a remark about “English manners”, but stopped himself. He wasn’t sure how the woman would take a remark like that, even as light hearted as he may have felt it. After all, he was a captain and not a diplomat. Even though they were quite different—and better in his opinion—than pirates, he still had that same distance from proper manners that all sailors held. It was, in his opinion, the only thing that held him back on land; another reason he preferred the sea.

“We make port in three days,” he said instead. “We’ll help you secure a ship back to your home.”

“What?” Fortune blurted before she could stop herself. She went to sit up but cringed at the sharp pain that shot through her head. Armando straightened some at her response. Her gaze met his, a stare that lacked the empathy she would expect from a man, especially a military man. All the men in uniform from her town changed their demeanor noticeably when around women.

“With all due respect, sir, I’m not sure she’ll be well enough to transfer ships at that time,” the surgeon stated. Fortune glanced to the man, an older gentleman than the Captain, with his dark hair beginning to gray and the wrinkles around his eyes becoming permanent. Even Fortune could tell he was older than most sailors, and wondered how much longer he would be on the ship.

“We’ll find someone to escort her after she’s well, but she’ll stay in port,” Armando answered. Fortune frowned. The more she thought about everything that happened, the more she wanted to remain on the ship. She knew the Navies of many countries were against the pirates. It was her one way to get closure for what they did to her and her family.

Besides, her sister and brother-in-law were the only ones she had left. Now that they had been killed, she was on her own. Her parents remained in England after she traveled the seas with her sister to the Caribbean, but they had lost touch after a few years. If she got a ship back to England, she would know the land but nothing else. Either outcome, she was to be a stranger in familiar territory, which struck her as the loneliest feeling she could have.

“What if I make a deal with you?” Fortune asked. Salazar’s right brow tipped upward, intrigued for a moment by the offer. However, a woman on the ship, especially an injured one, would merely get in the way. He couldn’t afford distractions if he wanted to cleanse the seas of pirates.

“No,” he answered. She paused. If she was honest with herself, she hadn’t been expecting to be shut down without making her offer. Her eyes twitched narrower before she relaxed into the bed and stared up at the ceiling. She made note of the distant throb in her leg, deciding she would wait for approval to test it before shifting too much. 

Salazar frowned. He expected an argument out of her rather than absolute compliance. His attention shifted to the surgeon. “Keep me updated on,” he stated. Something didn’t sit right with him about this woman; she didn’t seem quite the same as other women. Perhaps she was lying about the pirate part, or perhaps not. Either way, he wanted to keep a close eye on her for the next few days.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

Fortune had never been a troublemaker. She always listened to her parents, abided by the law, and helped out with the chores when she lived with her sister. The way she lived and acted was a far cry from perfect, or even the ideal woman, but she stayed out of trouble nonetheless.

However, the distant sound of the bilge rats pumping the water from the ship on the other side of her wall and the cool air that filtered through the area pushed her to the limits. She’d spent too much time on that blasted pirate ship being locked away or otherwise ordered around in less than pleasant ways. Now, laying in bed and staring at the dark ceiling in the middle of the night, she felt a restless need to try out her leg.

Sweat coated her skin and she swore that it felt colder than it should have, all signs pointing to a fever. She pushed the thoughts of her health away. A fever meant her body was fighting off something, and she didn’t want to think about the consequences of it failing her.

Instead, she moved her legs over the edge of the bed. The cool air rushed over her skin. Her leg sent warnings of protest to her brain, causing her to cringe at the pain that it registered. She clutched the edge of the bed and stared at the floor. A war waged in her head; to risk the worst and go above deck or try to remain safe and stay below deck. She decided on the former.

First, she put her good food to the cool floor and began to stand. She put weight slowly on her bad leg, trying hard not to give into the pain. It took several slow, steady steps toward the door before she rested against the doorframe. At that moment, it occurred to her that there was water up to her ankles, most likely the reason the bilge rats were being pushed so hard to work.  
The only comparison she had for this ship was the pirate ship she had been on. If either ship was similar, it would be a long passage between the room she was in and her escape past the bilge rats, and there would be an officer nearby that would likely spot her, if not be entirely in her way. She let out an annoyed huff and rocked against the doorway some, her mind running through as many options as she could think.

“I don’t think the surgeon would be happy to see you right now,” a voice came from somewhere around the corner. The surprise caused Fortune to jump, landing on her injured leg with full weight. She yelped as her leg gave out. The splash and feel of the hard wood never came. Instead, she felt a hand on her arm and an arm around her waist. “There’s a reason the injured stay in bed, señora.”

Fortune found herself staring up at the Spanish captain of the vessel. Her own eyes were wide and her mouth slightly open in surprise, and yet the man holding her stared down at her with as little emotion as she figured possible in this situation. She could feel the heat rise to her cheeks as she stared into his dark eyes. Her mind failed to grasp at any words to correct her embarrassment in the given situation.

He simply righted her and motioned to the bed with a single wave of his hand. “Now, return to bed,” he ordered. She paused for a moment before hobbling her way back over to the bed and taking a seat on the edge. He watched her from the doorway, though his gaze stayed on her injured leg for a moment. “You’re lucky we didn’t have to remove that. Are you going to risk that now? For what?” 

“I’ve been locked in a cell on a pirate ship for longer than I know, only being released for unpleasantries from my captors. I’m no longer content being locked up,” she answered, trying to keep from flashing her annoyance. She wasn’t accustomed to ships, and the concept of being in such a small space for so long. Not to mention, the near death experience she had and the injury to her leg. The most she had were illnesses that took weeks to cure, but nothing that truly ever threatened her life.

“So you would risk losing your leg for a fleeting moment of freedom?” he asked. She paused; it hadn’t sounded that way in her head. Her gaze shifted to her leg, bandaged well enough that she couldn’t see the current condition of her leg. 

“I’m smarter than you give me credit for. If you hadn’t startled me, I wouldn’t have been at risk.” She looked back to him. He chuckled some.

“Women don’t belong on ships, señora. An injured man would know to stay in bed,” he responded. 

“Have you gender checked every man on your ship? I’ve heard plenty of stories of women sneaking aboard in desperate times.”

“Nonsense.”

“It’s true. My…” She paused and took a deep breath. “My brother-in-law once found out that a man he worked closely on a ship with was indeed a woman. I have nothing left myself, no way to earn a living and no family to take care of me. I could make a ship my home.” Salazar scoffed before chuckling some. He was a wise enough man to put two and two together, knowing that the deal she wanted to make earlier was her way of asking to stay aboard the ship. It didn’t matter to him what her reasons were; a woman had no place aboard a ship.

Even if the work was easier and didn’t require the strength of a man, the conditions were harsh and cramped, and there were the dangers of battle. He would not be the one to let a woman get harmed from a wrong move when he challenged the pirates. “You will not stay aboard my ship.” She opened her mouth to speak again but he beat her to it. “Defying my command is not a way to convince me, either.”

She frowned, finally shifting her legs onto the bed and resting back against the pillow. “Three days until port?” she asked.

“Sí.”

“Then I have three days to convince you,” she responded. Salazar couldn’t hold back his smirk at the challenge. He already knew she was going to lose, but he saw no harm in humoring her. She would be bed ridden all of those days anyway, if the surgeon was correct.  
“Do as you wish,” he responded. “But you will not win.”


End file.
